Manon watches Iskra Yellowlegs lead her coven through the Crossing on Fendir, confirming the Yellowlegs will be away long enough for Manon to work with Abraxos privately. Asterin warns that Manon’s grandmother threatened her for letting Manon out of sight, forcing Manon to test Asterin’s loyalty. Asterin insists she serves Manon, and Manon shares her intent to become Wing Leader while ordering the Thirteen to sharpen their combat training and spy on the Yellowlegs.

In Abraxos’s pen, Manon finds the overseer and handlers failing to force the wyvern into a saddle. Abraxos hates their whips and refuses to move, and Manon is irritated by the men’s fear, their smell, and their treatment of him. When Manon cuts the overseer’s hand, his blood tastes rotten and too dark for normal human blood, raising questions she postpones.

Manon steps past the safety line and claims Abraxos by name, invoking the Great Beast. Instead of attacking, Abraxos lowers his head and touches his snout to Manon’s hand, showing that he understands and accepts her. Manon recognizes his scars and broken body not as weakness but as proof of survival, then dismisses the men and forbids them from bringing whips near him again.

Alone with Abraxos, Manon explains that she will saddle him, repair his mutilated tail with iron spikes, replace his ruined teeth with iron fangs, and teach him to fly. Over the next five days, Abraxos obeys, though he nearly attacks the handlers and physician during the painful modifications. Manon remains beside him, telling stories of the Thirteen and Crochan hunts to calm Abraxos and warn the men not to make mistakes.

While Abraxos is being prepared, Manon misses riding lessons and loses valuable time before the War Games. In the training hall, Sorrel reports that the younger Blackbeak covens are weak and unstable, and Manon gives one struggling leader two days to improve. Manon also acknowledges Vesta and Asterin’s secret activities with the mortal men but orders them to keep the death toll low to avoid a mutiny.

Manon checks on the Thirteen’s training and espionage efforts: Faline and Fallon revel in brutal drills, while Edda and Briar, the Shadows, are gathering intelligence. Manon orders Asterin and Sorrel to join her for the Shadows’ report and promises that she and Abraxos will be airborne within a week. Manon knows this confidence is a lie, but her lie steadies her lieutenants.